“Case for Gold” Free Book Landing Page from Agora Financial

This sales page from Agora Financial uses the "what's you address?" hook to cut right to the chase of their "free book + shipping" offer with newsletter subscription...View More trial attached. Normally, marketers will simply use this hook in their email subject lines, but Agora even uses it as the headline of their sales page, which shows you the power of this hook. The way Agora makes money from this offer is by requiring a free trial membership to get the book, which is automatically renewed if not cancelled during the specified trial period. Although Agora is primarily a newsletter business, they never sell their newsletters outright & always use bonuses to draw you in, making the newsletter simply a requirement to get the bonuses. The primary book being pitched, "The Case for Gold", will only be desirable if the reader truly believes an economic collapse is underway, which is why most of the sales letter is composed of proof and convincing arguments regarding the collapse. As with all financial opportunities, urgency is always a key component as well as ease & simplicity as they are targeting the everyday investor.

“Case for Gold” Free Book Landing Page from Agora FinancialSwiped in August 2016

Key Takeaways

Upon going through the annotations, you'll notice that a big theme a point out is how Jim is using history & historical examples as proof. The idea that history repeats is one many of us believe in or can at least grasp. By using that premise, Jim can then reference historical events that support the future he' selling you on. It's a very creative way of providing proof and usually necessary when you're making a bold prediction, which is often the case in financial sales letters.

There are several sales letters from Agora Financial on the site & one thing I try to point out over & over again is how they never really sell you on just their newsletter subscription, which is what they're primarily making money on. Instead, they sell you on bonus books & reports. They constantly come up with new bonus items containing fresh information that they can then use for the basis of their sales hook so it constantly feels new & relevant. If they just had a single unchanging sales page for their newsletter, they wouldn't be anywhere near as successful today. Keep this in mind if you're selling a newsletter, particularly in a market that's always changing, like the financial market.

Analyst Spotlight

Mike Schaueris the founder of Swiped.co and the main analyst in the swipes section. After intently studying & building conversion-focused websites for 6+ years, he started Swiped to help others master marketing & copywriting through the analysis of great examples!

Historical Screenshots

Visit the archives of this swipe's source URL or view past screenshots of agorafinancial.com below.